Remembrance Day contest begins for Legion

POPPY FUND CAMPAIGN TO BEGIN THIS MONTH

Student competitions are underway across southern Alberta, as the Royal Canadian Legion prepares for Remembrance Day.

Cash prizes are being offered for the best posters and literary submissions. The annual event is part of the General Stewart Branch’s support of the Legion’s aim at fostering the Remembrance Day tradition.

Schools in Lethbridge and nearby communities have been sent information and an invitation for students to take part, local officials say. All students are eligible, whether or not their schools take it on as a project.

Deadline for submissions will be Dec. 1, and judges will select national prize winners in time for a Legion celebration in April.

Later this month, meanwhile, members will be taking Poppy Fund donation boxes to locations across the region. Proceeds don’t go to maintaining the Legion, officials point out, but to veterans or community agencies that support veterans.

Recent contributions, they add, include funds for a bladder scanner for a Raymond longterm care facility, a special exercise bike — accessible in a wheelchair — in Magrath and tilting shower chairs at Chinook Regional Hospital.

The Lethbridge branch also supported the recent improvement project for the Immortal Flame at Mountainview Cemetery, they add. And it offers wreaths for local grave sites.

This year’s “tag day” will be Oct. 28, when members of youth groups will offer poppies at a number of locations across the city. Sea cadets will also take poppies to the Lethbridge Hurricanes game on Nov. 10, the day before Remembrance Day.

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